Our Other Blog: Two Sisters and Two Points of View
by Taswegian1957 & Human59
I have more phone photos today because although I went out with my camera on Friday it turns out that almost everything in Geeveston is made of wood!
So here are some sandstone bricks I photographed in Hobart, many of the old buildings date from the 1820s and the bricks were made with convict labour.
An old headstone in the Catholic cemetery in Geeveston.
I have always quite liked this photo that I took of a lady on the bus one day. She was absorbed in her knitting and although I don’t usually photograph strangers she just looked interesting. I have actually cropped this from a larger photo as I was a few seats away from her.
These days cricketers give many photo ops to fans as selfies are the new autographs. I am shy about approaching them however and in any case I prefer a natural photo to a posed one and I don’t want loads of pictures of me anyway. I took this one at a Hurricanes game in 2017 and although he’s not a favourite player I quite like the shot.
My friends Gillian and Bruce at the old Sunbury Asylum site.
Two photos from Easter 2010 when David and I had just got a new car and went over to Bruny Island for the day. Like me David did not really like to pose for photos and if he did he usually pulled a silly face so catching him unawares was a better idea.
What’s the worst topping you could put on popcorn? (Credit to Teresa for this one)
It had never occurred to me that you needed to put a topping on popcorn. It has butter, what else could it need? Mind you I haven’t had any for years. I love it but it would be wasteful to make it for one person.
In what country did Silent Night originate?
Without cheating and consulting Mr Google I believe that it is German, certainly it was originally sung in that language.
I did not read your answers Mel until afterwards so I know what I should have said now. Long time since I read the story about it but I do love the one about the British and German troops singing it in the trenches in WWI.
(WARNING! The following question is NOT meant to start a fuss. It’s merely a good discussion question in my opinion. Most everyone knows where I stand on this. If you feel like arguing about it, please give it a pass.) We’re all adults and sensible ones at that. We can be mature about such things, right?
How would you react if there was irrefutable proof that God doesn’t exist? How about if there was irrefutable proof that God does exist?
Wow, that is a very deep question and I’m afraid that my first reaction was to think of “The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy” in particular the part about the Babel Fish. I’m not ridiculing the subject it was just the first thing that popped into my head.
In truth I’m not really religious although I have respect for those who are, and I don’t know that it would make a huge difference to me either way. I can’t see myself living out my remaining years differently. I guess that I believe that God exists but I don’t require proof.
And last question:
What is the scariest non-banned item you could take on to a plane?
I am not really sure what is banned and what isn’t these days. I probably fly less than once a year. On a flight home from Singapore Naomi was not allowed to bring a tube of toothpaste. I would not have said that was a particularly dangerous item. I’m pretty sure we can take it on domestic flights. I think a knitting needle would be a more dangerous item and I believe they were banned for a while but not sure about now as we have relaxed the rules a bit.
Traditions
Which version of the holiday celebration do you and your family enjoy? By this I mean do you follow Jewish traditions with Hanukkah; Christian celebrations with Christmas and (for those over the pond) Boxing Day; or some other festivities that I’ve overlooked? Please do share with everyone! I truly feel that this sort of question lets us know a little more about our fellow bloggers without getting too personal (i.e. revealing too much of private lives, which some folks prefer to keep private.)
We celebrate Christmas although as I have mentioned neither my sister nor I are particularly religious. As I think I mentioned in a previous post I do enjoy Christmas Carols, the old traditional ones like “Silent Night” as opposed to Christmas songs although they can be fun in the right place. My idea of Christmas is about family(including pets), friends and trying to do a bit of good in the world because there are always people worse off than you are; at least if you live in a first world country and have any income at all. Some of my Christmas gifts to family members that are better off than I am may be donations to organisations that protect animals or supply people in less well-off countries the means to make an income or have clean water. I think that is important.
Boxing Day is a public holiday in Australia too although I think this is more a carryover from our British heritage than because we really understand what it was originally for. In Australia Boxing Day means barbecues, the beach for some, eating left over Christmas food while watching the cricket on television, or going to the MCG to see it live if you happen to live in Melbourne.
It’s funny how your photographic needs can change over time. When we used to go on steam train trips I found a long lens very useful for run pasts and even more so later on for photographing motor sports and action on the cricket field. A 300 or 400mm prime lens or zoom was one of my must have pieces of gear.
I like to take pictures of landscapes and buildings so a wide-angle lens is a must. Now that I am photographing more small things, dolls house interiors, flowers etc I could really use a macro lens but I don’t have one yet so I make do with what I have using the zoom lens or just getting in close with a standard lens.
These photos were taken on my smartphone. I had to leave the house while some people were looking at it so I went to the old cemetery behind Sacred Heart School with Cindy. I managed to take a few photos there amongst the headstones. I don’t find cemeteries grim although sometimes it’s sad when you see the graves of babies and children or graves that nobody visits but old headstones tell their own stories.
We’ve had some warm days here in Tasmania recently but I have been too busy to take any photographs so let’s see how people stay cool (or not) on Ovation of the Seas.
Getting an icecream on the pool deck is a delicious way to cool down although perhaps not so much for the guy serving them.
I didn’t try these but they look like a pretty good way to enjoy the pool.
Meanwhile the staff still have to get their work done. We got to do a tour and saw some of the places below decks.
The people in here always keep cool at work.
This guy, not so much.
I wasn’t sure if I would reblog this post again this year but Melanie (https://sparksfromacombustiblemind.com/) asked me about White Christmas so I thought I would after all. I haven’t commenced making any of these goodies yet. I was planning to do the pudding on Sunday but I may have a house inspection so we’ll have to see.
A few years ago I wrote a series of posts about my favourite Christmas recipes. I have reblogged them a couple of times since as more people are now visiting the blog and may not have seen them the first time around.
This year I decided to post links to the old posts so that if you choose you can go and take a look at them. It may be a little late to start making a Christmas pudding or cake unless you have several hours to spare but you can bake a batch of mince pies and White Christmas takes no time at all to make.
So once again here they are, my favourite Christmas recipes.
Mince Pies
White Christmas, this is the version made with copha.
Fruit cake decorated with nuts.
Here are the ingredients for the Christmas Pudding.
Whether we have it or we don’t have it rain plays an enormous part in our daily lives. We can’t live without it but too much of it at one time can cause havoc and not enough of it is devastating.
One of the things that attracted me to the Huon Valley is how green it is. I’d spent most of my life in South Australia, the driest state and the rivers and lakes, green grass and flowers here appealed to me. It does seem to rain more here than some other parts of the state. Naomi says that it always rains when she comes to visit me. She was here Saturday and it was dry until about 5pm and then as she started to think about going home down came the rain.
Not enough rain at the right time of year can be bad for farmers crops but unseasonal rain and hail in summer can ruin the cherry crop and growers lose a lot of money because damaged cherries are no good for export.
At times there are areas that are very prone to flooding. Launceston often suffers from floods in winter but the city has put in levees that they hope will protect the city from the worst of them. We had bad flooding in the north a couple of winters ago when several rivers rose dangerously high.
The Huon River sometimes floods in winter, usually, it is not too bad in Huonville, just water over the road in a couple of places. Two or three times since I’ve been here I’ve seen water in the main street and a couple of businesses have been affected but a couple of years ago there was a situation created by high tides in the estuary, melting snow and a lot of rain and there was a much worse flood. Homes were evacuated, businesses were flooded and livestock lost.
Tasmania isn’t always wet though, people don’t realise it but Hobart is the driest state capital after Adelaide and we have had serious droughts in Tasmania, especially in the eastern part of the state. The area where Naomi lives in the centre of the state is farming country and she often told me how distressed the local farmers were when they had to destroy sheep or sell them for very little because the land would not support them. Lake Dulverton at Oatlands where she lives dried up completely during a particularly bad drought.
I am fortunate enough that my house is connected to the town water supply but I have friends who rely on rainwater tanks and when the rain doesn’t come they have to buy water.
Mostly I don’t mind when it rains. Of course, it is a nuisance at times, at the Op Shop for example when it is too wet for us to put anything outside the shop and the bad weather keeps customers away. Or when I go to the cricket and the match is rained out. On the other hand, rain is nice to cool everything down after a hot day and I like the sound of rain on a metal roof. Without rain, there would be no rainbows.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/weather/2013/11/21/australian-weather-myths-tested-city-fare/
